Top 5: Benjamin Rice

I love this surgical, dynamic EQ. It’s a go-to for sure. Although the Pro-Q 2 is great, the dynamic EQ of Pro-Q 3 allows each frequency point you make to have its own dynamic range. I like to work as much with dynamic EQ-ing as I can. I don’t want to only cut or boost conflicting frequencies, but rather, work flexibly around problem areas as they present themselves. For example, say you have a 1k to 2k problem in a guitar or a vocal. Instead of a static cut, I will use the Pro-Q 3 to set up dynamic cuts that move with the song. This makes it easier to be musical with EQ changes when you need them most.

I use this on every session to add colour. I’ll put it on all my auxiliary buses with the default setting and dial in subtle amounts of saturation for each group. For example, on the drums I may add some of the Dark Essence and Opal setting. On guitars, I might want more of the Gold and Luminescence colour. I will blend certain things to taste in addition to whatever EQ-ing and compression I might be doing on those buses. I do this just to give each of them their own tiny bit of colour within the puzzle. It is such a useful tool to change the sonic fingerprint of something without reaching for another EQ.

I have the hardware unit in my studio and it’s something that I will scroll through and audition for each session. Sometimes I’m looking for something straight forward, but in other cases I’m looking around for a setting I’ve never used before that I can manipulate creatively in the song somewhere. Once I find something that feels good, I will immediately print it in Pro Tools on a return track. Once it’s printed, I’ll dive in to adding different plugins to sculpt it even more. Adding distortion or other modulation effects to these printed verbs can really add a lot to the dimension of the overall FX in the song.

I use this primarily for bass distortion, as well as anywhere that I think some parallel distortion could be useful. When I’m recording a Bass DI and amp, I like to add Culture Vulture to one of them and blend the clean and dirty signal together in order to make a more impactful sound. When using the plugin version, simply inserting it onto something and using the built-in wet/dry adds exactly what I’m looking for. It’s an incredible piece of gear for so many things. It’s my favourite thing to try when I’m wanting to distort something or add some grit, character, or fullness.

I love this FX plugin. It’s a fun and super-creative tool that will give you all types of different sounds. I like to use it for transition effects as well as creating layers of effects that I can use to add dimension to a section in a song. Although you can dive deep into the algorithms and automation settings, I find quick and inspirational ideas for FXs simply by scrolling through the presets when I’m stuck on an idea that I have in my head. I really enjoy this plugin because it can do so many unique things that other delay units don’t really do.